A violin that once belonged to one of history's most famous scientists has been sold at auction for £860,000.
The 1894 Zunterer violin is believed to have been Albert Einstein's first and was initially expected to sell for around £300,000 when it was auctioned at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in South Cerney, Gloucestershire.
A philosophy book that Einstein gave to a friend also sold for £2,200, the Telegraph reports.
All prices will have an additional commission of 26.4% added, meaning the final price for the violin will be over £1 million.
Auctioneers believe that once the commission is added, the sale could be the highest ever for a violin not previously owned by a concert violinist or made by Stradivarius - with the previous record held by an instrument likely played on the Titanic.
Chris Albury, a specialist in historical memorabilia at Dominic Winter Auctioneers, described the sale, which was completed in about 10 minutes, as a "special moment".
"We had three telephone bidders involved deep into the end," he told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.
Albury said many people were unaware that Einstein had played the violin.
"He always said that if he hadn't been a scientist, he would have liked to have been a musician. He started learning the violin around the age of four and played it every day for the rest of his life," he added.
A bicycle saddle that was also owned by Einstein was not sold at auction and may be resold.
All items auctioned off were given to his good friend and fellow physicist Max von Laue at the end of 1932.
Shortly thereafter, Einstein fled to America to escape the rise of anti-Semitism and Nazism in Germany.
Max von Laue gave them to an acquaintance and fan of Einstein's, Margarete Hommrich, 20 years later, and it was her great-granddaughter who had now put them up for sale.
Another violin once owned by Einstein, which was given to him when he arrived in the United States in 1933, was sold at auction for $516,500 (£370,000) in New York in 2018. /Telegraph/
